LAKE FOREST, CA-New owner Lake Forest Associates Inc. has acquired a fully leased R&D building in this South Orange County submarket from Lake Street Advisors for $14.3 million, according to Colliers International. The 71,656-sf property, which is 100% leased to Panasonic Corp., lies within the 200-acre Pacific Commercentre Business Park at 26111 Enterprise Way.

Clyde Stauff, SVP at the Anaheim office of Colliers International, describes the property as part of an Orange County R&D inventory where "the vacancy rates are extremely low" at approximately 4.8% and "have continued to be in a downward trend for the past year." Stauff, who represented both the buyer and the seller along with SVP Michael Hartel Colliers International's Irvine office, says that the strong market for R&D space and the continuing investor demand "translate into fewer great investment opportunities such as this one."

Stauff points out that the Pacific Commercentre property is "leased to a strong credit tenant on a long-term net lease." Panasonic leases the facility for assembly of audio/visual displays for aircraft.

A recent market report by Colliers International notes that in addition to the standard industrial market, Orange County has a large flex/R&D market totaling 67.8 million sf. Vacancy rates have dropped in the R&D market from 6.6% a year ago to 4.8% as of the end of the third quarter, according to the report.

The Colliers study points out that the vacancy declined and rents continued to climb in Orange County despite the completion of 254,700 sf of new space. "The vacancy rate is projected to continue to remain low and rental rates to continue to climb sharply," the report says.